


you can see it with the lights out (you are in love)

by Lysippe



Category: The Worst Witch (TV 2017), The Worst Witch - All Media Types
Genre: Canon Divergent, F/F, Kinda, and Pippa has a temper, in which Hecate is distraught, post: "Miss Softbroom"
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-02
Updated: 2019-01-02
Packaged: 2019-10-03 04:21:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17276969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lysippe/pseuds/Lysippe
Summary: “I’m sorry, Hiccup,” she said, making her way over to the bed and sitting down heavily. Hecate shifted slightly, adjusting her balance as the mattress moved underneath her. “Miss Cackle called asking after you, and you were asleep, and…” Pippa trailed off, the way she always did when she was uncertain about something. “I didn’t want to wake you,” she said, finally. “I thought… considering everything… that you deserved a night’s rest.”She said nothing of the content of their conversation, though she had to know that Hecate had heard. And Hecate, for her part, had no particular desire to bring it up. She didn’t know what she would say, if she did. Thank you for standing up for like you always do, even if I’m not certain I agree with you had a rather poor ring to it.





	you can see it with the lights out (you are in love)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [roguebeachcomber](https://archiveofourown.org/users/roguebeachcomber/gifts).



> This was written as a response to a prompt from roguebeachcomber on Tumblr for 'things you said when you thought i was asleep.' It's generally set after s2e9, and kinda canon divergent, but not in any major way.

_ “She’s okay, all things considered. As okay as she can be, in any event.” _

They were the first words Hecate heard when she woke up, groggy and disoriented in Pippa’s bed. Pippa’s voice was hushed, but tense, even from out in her sitting room. She clearly thought Hecate was still asleep, was clearly trying to keep the noise to a minimum for her sake.

Hecate wondered, for a moment, who she was talking to. Who would mirror Pippa so late at night, and for what purpose. She considered going to check, to make sure everything was okay. The last thing she remembered was grudgingly allowing herself to be led to Pippa’s bed, with firm instructions to  _ get some rest, you look a fright; we’ll talk about this after _ . It was with some chagrin and no small amount of frustration, that Hecate realized Pippa must have tucked her into bed.

Until the voice on the other end of the mirror came through, and Hecate froze halfway through swinging her legs over the side of the bed.

She knew it was Ada from the all-too-familiar sigh, before she spoke. “I’m relieved to hear that. She was quite distressed when she left this evening.” 

“And why wouldn’t she be? Finding out, months after the fact, that not only did her students dose her with a personality changing potion, but there was apparently a staff-wide conspiracy to keep it a secret from her, cannot possibly have been pleasant.”

Oh.

Oh, _no_.

“Miss Pentangle--”

Pippa’s voice was hard when she interrupted, sharp in a way that it rarely was. Angrier than Hecate had heard in years. “Miss Cackle, I in no way wish to overstep my bounds--”

“I have found that those words are rarely the precursor to anything else.” Ada’s voice was mild, but Hecate immediately heard the undercurrent of hardness that matched Pippa’s own. 

“Perhaps that may be,” Pippa pressed, growing imperious with a self-righteousness that Hecate was entirely too familiar with. “But I feel it would be remiss of me not to voice my concerns over the fact that some of your students intentionally drugged a member of your staff, and faced no consequences whatsoever for doing so.”

“The students in question understand the severity of their actions,” Ada said sharply. “Though I hardly see as how it is in any way your place to bring into question my school’s disciplinary practices.”

The silence that hung thick in the air was more concerning than anything Pippa might have said on impulse. Hecate could almost hear Pippa counting to ten in her head, pushing her temper down as far as it would go. As far as her pride would let it.

“To be clear,” Pippa said, finally, “you are saying that you feel the consequences meted out, nonexistent as they were, are appropriate given the… given the damage they caused?”

Hecate felt the back of her neck prickle at that. She was profoundly uncomfortable with being the topic of this conversation. With the fact that this conversation was taking place between her employer and closest friend, and… whatever she and Pippa were to one another. With the fact that people were, once again, discussing the manner in which her own students had violated her. The fact that her colleagues had actively worked to keep her from knowing. 

With the fact that Pippa felt compelled to fight this battle on her behalf.

But then, Hecate had decided not to fight it herself. Had instead made up the tersest, quickest excuse she could, and left the school as quickly as possible. Had run away from problems that felt larger than she could deal with. As she always had.

“The chances were excellent that she never would have remembered,” Ada said, quietly. Hecate felt her stomach give a sickening lurch. “Personality potions almost always leave a permanent mental block that--”

Pippa’s voice rose, fury brushing at the edges. “And that makes it  _ better _ ? That you and your staff willingly kept something of this gravity from her? Believing that she would never remember? That it would be a secret between yourselves and every student in your school?”

It wasn’t that Pippa’s anger came as a surprise, necessarily. She had been equally outraged when Hecate had told her, had nearly flown to Cackle’s herself to tell Ada off. It had only been at Hecate’s behest -- which had been closer to pleading than Hecate cared to admit -- that Pippa had relented, wrapping Hecate instead in a furious hug and whispering  _ I am so, so sorry _ over and over until Hecate thought the words might just be imprinted on her soul.

Hecate suspected that Pippa had not been the one to initiate this interaction. She doubted that Pippa would go behind her back. She had always been far too straightforward, far too open and honest for that. And if nothing else, Pippa would know how personal a betrayal Hecate would find it if she did. 

Which meant that Ada had called to inquire about her well-being.

The words  _ too little, too late  _ sat heavily in the back of Hecate’s mind, cold and bitter. For years, she had considered Ada her closest, most trusted friend. As much as it stung, the knowledge that  her students hated her enough to try and use magic to fundamentally change who she was as a person wasn’t what had truly hurt. It was the fact that Ada -- and the rest of her colleagues -- had known and not felt that she had the right to know. That they were seemingly content to keep this a secret from her for… how long?

“How,” Pippa continued, dangerously, “can you  _ possibly  _ call yourself her  _ friend _ , if you ever thought that this wouldn’t be a violation of the greatest order to Hecate?”

There was a moment of silence so long, Hecate almost thought that someone had ended the call in anger. But then, Ada’s voice came through, hesitant and uncertain and lacking the defensive edge Hecate had heard before. “I had to take into consideration that the girls in question were first year students. That they are  _ children _ , who had little concept of--”

“Or, you didn’t want to expel Ursula Hallow’s daughter while she was out for your blood.”

Pippa was treading dangerously close to crossing a line, Hecate knew. But the thought had occurred to her; had, in fact, been the first thing to occur to her, when she found out. And a part of her was relieved, in a pathetic, somewhat spineless way, that someone else had thought of it, too.

That someone else had said it.

Even if it wasn’t her.

Even if Pippa had once again stepped up to fight Hecate’s battles when she herself shied away from them.

Even if some part of her understood. Understood Beatrice and Clarice and Sibyl, and their frustration. Understood that her coworkers wouldn’t want to broach that topic, wouldn’t want to justify their decision to her.

To some degree, she even understood the decision itself.

“Miss Pentangle.” The edge in Ada’s voice was back, harder and angrier than ever. “Do you think it at all possible that you might be biased in this situation?”

“Miss Cackle, even if I were, would that make me wrong?” Even from the bedroom, Hecate could hear the way Pippa’s voice sharpened like a knife, cold fury in every word.

Ada’s sigh was so soft, so resigned, that Hecate barely heard it. “I don’t  _ know _ . It was… is… a very difficult situation. I don’t believe that there was any  _ good  _ way to handle it. Clearly, you disagree with the choices made. But they have already been made, and no amount of ire on your part will change that.” 

“Then I will assume I have answered your questions to your satisfaction, and let you get back to sleep.” Pippa’s voice was terse, heavy with everything she had left unsaid. Everything Hecate knew she still wanted to say.

But Pippa would respect decorum when it was forced on her, however grudgingly.

Ada must have acquiesced, because not two minutes later, Pippa appeared in the doorway, frustration coming off her in waves. She blanched when she saw Hecate sitting upright. 

“I’m sorry, Hiccup,” she said, making her way over to the bed and sitting down heavily. Hecate shifted slightly, adjusting her balance as the mattress moved underneath her. “Miss Cackle called asking after you, and you were asleep, and…” Pippa trailed off, the way she always did when she was uncertain about something. “I didn’t want to wake you,” she said, finally. “I thought… considering everything… that you deserved a night’s rest.”

She said nothing of the content of their conversation, though she had to know that Hecate had heard. And Hecate, for her part, had no particular desire to bring it up. She didn’t know what she would say, if she did.  _ Thank you for standing up for like you always do, even if I’m not certain I agree with you _ had a rather poor ring to it.

“I appreciate you taking the call,” Hecate said, slowly. “I don’t believe I am… quite fit for conversation at the moment.” She said it grudgingly, but she also knew it to be true on some fundamental level. The thought of talking to Ada tonight turned her stomach in a most unpleasant way. She would get over it, she was sure, eventually. But eventually was not tonight, and tonight, the only thing Hecate wanted was to think of literally anything else.

Which was something Pippa apparently understood. With a gentle nudge of her shoulder against Hecate’s, she said, “Now move over, for goodness sake. You know how tired righteous indignation makes me.”

Hecate didn’t even try to conceal the chuckle that bubbled up in her throat. “I do remember something of the sort, yes.”

Hecate moved back to the other side of the bed -- her side, on the nights she spent with Pippa -- and eased back under the covers, turning to face the window. She wasn’t convinced that sleep would come again quite so easily, if at all. But she knew that for all her talk, Pippa wouldn’t actually fall asleep unless Hecate did. That she would refuse to leave her alone, no matter how much Hecate tried to insist that it was unnecessary. And, if she were being completely honest, Hecate had to admit that, at least for tonight, that was something she appreciated much more than she let on.

Pippa slid into bed beside Hecate, and wrapped one arm around Hecate’s stomach, warm and solid and exactly the right kind of  _ there _ . “I’m glad you’re safe, Hiccup,” she murmured, softly into the back of Hecate’s neck. “I’m glad you came to me.”

Hecate’s breath caught in her chest for a moment. Then, she turned her head, just enough that Pippa would be able to hear her, and said, “So am I.”

**Author's Note:**

> Join me on Tumblr @ thebestdressedrebelinhistory


End file.
